Remember all that rubbish about how Donald Trump’s election win was some triumph of the people over the “elites”?
It made little sense at the time and has made progressively less sense as Elon Musk, one of the world’s richest men and shabbiest human beings, has insisted on being a co-president to Mad King Donald, even as his failing rockets threaten aircraft around the world. And consider Trump’s nominee for Treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, a billionaire investment manager who is a longtime Democrat supporter and donor-turned-Trump fan and protegé of that ultimate elite bête noire of the right, George Soros. Surely Bessent is a fully paid-up member of the “elite”?
But despite the reality-phobic mindset of MAGA, words still have meaning. And if you’re looking for people who are, by any coherent dictionary definition of the word, elite, look at those pouring money into Trump’s inauguration committee.
Inaugural committees and the money they can solicit from donors is a particularly American contribution to the practice of political graft: anyone elected at the federal, state or local level can have a committee to plan their inauguration event — everything except the strictly formal swearing-in part, which in the presidential case is organised by a congressional committee. While there are some limitations around who can donate to the inaugural committees for congressmen and women, and some states place limits on donations, it’s otherwise a free-for-all for anyone wanting to curry favour with someone elected to public office.
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, the biggest financier (after Elon Musk) of the Trumps — including the US$48 million reported cost of a North Korean-style documentary to screen on Prime TV later this year on Melania Trump — will be there. So will Apple’s Tim Cook, who has donated US$1 million to Trump’s inaugural fund, and OpenAI’s Sam Altman, who gave US$1 million too. Adobe is reported to have paid a similar amount. Google and Facebook both donated US$1 million, as did Microsoft as well as Uber and its CEO.
Trump’s inauguration is, to paraphrase Mark Latham, a conga line of tech bros, each intent on securing regulatory favours from a president who has made no bones about the fact that the White House is a grift for him and his family.
The nearly US$170 million raised so far for the inauguration fund triples the US$62 million that President Joe Biden’s inaugural committee raised in 2021 and dwarfs even the US$107 million that Trump’s first inaugural committee raised in 2017 — which was a record-setting amount at the time. As was the case for Trump’s 2017 inauguration, donors get different access depending on their contribution tier, with supporters in the highest tier giving US$1 million or raising US$2 million. But this time, the lowest tier is US$50,000, which is double the lowest tier at Trump’s first inauguration.
Some key industrial companies, which will win or lose from the Mad King’s planned tariff war, are also in the mix: the US arms of South Korea’s Hyundai Motor and European car group Stellantis have also donated US$1 million, as has Delta Airlines and troubled Boeing. BP’s US arm is donating a reported US$500,000. Toyota and Ford are making undisclosed payments too and US stockmarket retail trading platform Robinhood Markets donated US$2 million, according to a company spokesman.
Australians Gina Rinehart and Anthony Pratt (who is decamping for America) will be attending the inauguration; Pratt will also reportedly be enjoying a lovely candlelit dinner with the Mar-a-Lago monarch.
The only downside is that the inauguration has been moved inside because it might be too cold for attendees — we wouldn’t want Trump succumbing William Henry Harrison-style to pneumonia in March (imagine the Deep State conspiracy theories!). JFK managed with just an overcoat in sub-zero conditions, despite his terrible back and Addison’s, but as some have pointed out, Trump is nearly twice as old as Kennedy, so fair enough.
With the presence of the tech bros, Trump’s inauguration will represent the most naked display of oligarchic power in US history. One of the few silver linings of Trump’s return is that there can no longer be any pretence that the US system of democracy isn’t structured to serve the interests of capital and further enrich the already super-wealthy.
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